Digital Tuesday, neon, pastel, splatters

Here are a few more digital sketches made using Sketchbook App on my smart phone. For this one, I set the background to dark maroon, then drew random shapes using the neon paintbrush tool. Varying the colours between yellow, white, red and cyan gave a neon look. The tool makes the glow effect automatically. 

Neon doodle, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Going with another dark background, this time on the blue side, I stamped over a variety of colourful patterns. To change the stamp, one has to delve into the advanced feature, nib, then find the little pictures and there are about three dozen stamp varieties which can be further altered for shape, size and randomness. 

Tangle splatters, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Starting with the default white background and some pastel lines, I over-stamped green splatters which caused negative effects. The initial lines look white where the splatters are green, I am not sure why that happened but it looks pretty darn cool. 

Pastel foliage swirls, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Using soft pastel brush gives a chalk-on-the-sidewalk effect. Varying colours and aligning the brush-strokes gave a breezy appearance. Just the background seemed bland, so I overlaid a few smudge brush strokes on different angles to complete a windy feeling. I accidentally reversed the image, you see my initials mirror-image, just noticed now.... I guess the painting blew over!

Chalk line smudges, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

I forgot which brush this was in the background, it was from the texture essential menu. Concentric rectangles followed a roughly rainbow progression of colours. Smudge-brush over top was used to write my initials and a few random shapes. This one really felt like I was finger painting!

Smudge over texture, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Paths and greenery

These large sun seats are perfect for relaxing and catching some rays. Interlocking brick and landscaping complete the scene. Dark magenta (PV55) provided a scintillating spring tint. I ran out of yellow paint, it was gloopy and clinging to the brush today. 

Curve path sun seats, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Some metal artwork adorned this path, with plenty of greenery all around. The iron colour was done with burnt yellow ochre (PR102), pyrol orange (PO73) and dark magenta (PV55). 

Path iron post art, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

On the upper right strut a rare SCAN graffiti remains, protected from the elements. Although the city repaired this beam thereby covering the SC part of the writing. SCAN was a well known graffiti artist who passed away in 2017, this work was dated 2013. PJD wrote on the rest of the structure

Scan under bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Coral sunset, downtown night paintings

Riding my bike down Maisonneuve path and I caught a neat view of a coral sunset over Decarie. The highway was illuminated with artificial lights and car lights. The sunset was done with variations of orange yellow (PY110), red-orange (PO73) and magenta (PR122). Clouds were indo blue and pyrol orange with some raw sienna. 

Coral Sunset Decarie, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026

 

This nearby auto shop had another expensive sports car in front, this time a Porsche. It was an old-fashioned coupe soft top model, but it turned out looking more like a station wagon in my painting!

Sports car auto shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Using a technique I learned from a digital Sketchbook app, this painting has soft-pastel like brush strokes. Smudging also helped create an atmospheric night scene in the city. As usual I enjoy painting Metro signs. 

Downtown night lights textures, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Standing in front of palais des congrès, the convention center, there were strong overhead lights to paint under. Across the street, a tall office tower had Google's symbol on top. It must be where all the search engine stuff goes. 

Google skyscraper, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

More interesting, this watering truck went by as I painted and watered all the plant potters along the Palais entrance. The truck drove off before I could complete the painting so I filled in by memory. Getting colourful reflections off the road was tricky, I used two layers, then some texturing at the end. I used a different approach for the blinking arrow sign, starting with orange dots, then outlining in a neutral orange, followed by a jet-black fill. It made the lights appear to glow. 

Watering truck night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Harley Beach

Down on Harley street in Westhaven neighborhood the city demolished an old apartment block revealing a sandy expanse reminiscent of a beach. Looking more carefully the other day, and I noticed a view of palm trees and emerald green water of the Caribbean sea! Who knew there was such a treasure nearby, this will surely boost tourism in the area.  

Harley Beach palm trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Colourful barricade and other iconic scenes

Perhaps the city was feeling bad about putting ugly barricades that get graffiti on them, so this one downtown had a dozen or so colourful placards branded with transportation symbols. Additional barricades including concrete dividers, fence with blue tarp, signs, and pylons completed this iconic summer Montreal scene. Oh, and that is beautiful Montreal in the background! 

Colourful barricade, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026 

 

Park Dalhousie is found along st. Hubert street near Old Port, it used to be a train yard with many parallel rails, now its a manicured sitting park with historical displays. These benches sit in front of a small field of purple puff-ball flowers growing under the shade of trees. Getting the perspective correct was key here, so I started with a fain paint outline of the path and benches before filling in the colours. 

Parc Dalhousie purple puff balls, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Rue Notre Dame is elevated here with what used to be a train bridge one could assume. A lot of the area is sectioned off since the city is working on the new neighborhood where Molson Brewery used to be. It will become a multi-use housing and park project, with views of the river.  

Rue Notre Dame elevation, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Peeking through the construction fence I got a glimpse of a giant crater where Molson's brewery used to be. The main part of the brewery with its iconic sign is still up, its just off to the left of this scene. In the background is Jacques Cartier bridge and Park La Ronde off to the right. One day this crater will be a community development, the Molson family donated the land to the city. Their new brewery is an enormous modern facility down in Longueuil.

Molson's crater, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Canal paintings feeling like summer almost

Looking east along the canal towards downtown, I painted the blue water with indo blue (PB60) and raw sienna (PBr7) waves to give the impression of a windy day. Plenty of greenery was here, I used mixes of yellow (PY154), orange-yellow (PY110), and green (PB36). Dark green (PBk31) plus the yellow-orange paint gave shadow areas depth. 

Canal path chimney, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Looking the other way, here the fence along the canal does a zig-zag where there used to be a stair case down to a wharf perhaps. There are also mooring posts here and there where barges would have thrown ropes. In the background you see part of an iconic pale-green footbridge. 

Zig zag fence canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Taking a VIA train will pass over this bridge on the way downtown Montreal. It went by as I painted but too late to include it in the painting. This is a great place to stop and paint, I painted Night Goose on this location, one of my most viewed blogs of the year so far. Replacing the graffiti with my initials is always fun. 

Low train bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Paint drops, new tubes of paint

Its starting to pale in comparison, making abstract with watercolour versus making abstract with digital sketchbook app. But the digital images are teaching me a lot and pushes me to make watercolour paintings more intense and saturated. In this watercolour, I tested out the new paints I just received from Kama Pigments, an excellent artisinal art supply store in Montreal. They have Daniel Smith and Holbein brand paints at great prices, and I use their synthetic squirrel brushes. In the painting you see bright yellow called imadazole yellow by Holbein (PY154),  and by Daniel Smith there are permanent orange (PO62), raw sienna (PBr7), raw umber (PBr7), quinacridone purple (PV55), and indothrone blue (PB60).

The only one I have never used before was the raw umber by Daniel Smith, although I had one by M. Graham which used honey in the formula. I liked the colour of the M. Graham one but the honey-based paint tend to melt in the summer. In the winter, the honey-based paints activate quite well though, so that is a plus since I paint outside throughout the winter no matter how cold it gets. Luckily, the Daniel Smith raw umber is the exact same colour profile, a dark-chocolate, rich neutral brown perfect for making tree bark, fresh earth, or black coffee hues. 

Paint drops, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026